[rebel-builders] Fife wing tips

[bransom]

I liked what I heard on Dave Fife tips too, and ordered just to be sure to not
kick myself and have it turn out that he quits making them by the time I
needed them. It took at least 8 months, maybe 10 for delivery. The
incredibly annoying thing is that most of the time he won't even
respond ...and yes, he cashes your check on first contact. I was grateful and
a bit surprised when one week after yet another call from me, he actually
responded like there never was a problem, and mailed them to me within
days. He's like the soup nazi -- you want his tips bad enf that you put up
with his absurd business manner.

ps: Don't disregard the benefit of the slow end of the flight envelope. I
recall archive info that they make the plane much nicer and controllable at
the slow end, and reduce stall speed by at least 5mph. Hey, someday I hope
to find out.
-Ben 496R



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[Angus McKenzie]

OK, I need to make a comment, having listened to all the repartee' regarding Dave Fife and his tips!
Experimental aviation is a HOBBY for Dave, myself and Wayne (sorry to drag you into this Wayne). We are all involved in other endeavours that require us to be away and work long hours to make the money to enjoy being involved in the home-built world.
Dave is one of the most upstanding men you will meet and is honourable beyond reproach!
His tips make the Rebel work better. They will improve the inherent stability of the plane and are manufactured with a degree of care and attention to quality that you don't often see in our day-to-day mass production lives.
Add the fact that Dave is just a cool dude and you should be grateful that you can buy his hand-crafted work.
Dave is not even a Rebel builder but made the original tips to help his good friend Curtis Martin, Curt's plane won Outstanding Floatplane award at OSH it's first year out. When other Rebel builders (myself included) saw Daves' Hoerner style tips on Curts' Rebel we all bugged him to make us sets. Bugged him until he relented and said he'd do what he could but he had "other responsibilities" we'd have be patient.
I've had much pilot time to compare different tip designs on ag-planes and can say from experience and observation that this style design is a proven asset. When you are part of a flight of same make/model/power planes (some with Maderas tips) taking off with the same load many times a day the Hoerner tipped plane is consistently first airborn and gets to the field with or ahead of the others.......just a personal observation ...........Angus





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[Simon Smith]

Angus I'm in 100% agreement with your post. If you want them for your Rebel
order them ahead of time you won't be sorry. Rebel's 555R, 572R Fife tips on
both.
Si
age -----
From: "Angus McKenzie" <angus.mckenzie@sympatico.ca>
To: "Mike Davis" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:26 AM
Subject: RE: [rebel-builders] Fife wing tips

OK, I need to make a comment, having listened to all the repartee'
regarding Dave Fife and his tips!
Experimental aviation is a HOBBY for Dave, myself and Wayne (sorry to drag
you into this Wayne). We are all involved in other endeavours that require
us to be away and work long hours to make the money to enjoy being
involved in the home-built world.
Dave is one of the most upstanding men you will meet and is honourable
beyond reproach!
His tips make the Rebel work better. They will improve the inherent
stability of the plane and are manufactured with a degree of care and
attention to quality that you don't often see in our day-to-day mass
production lives.
Add the fact that Dave is just a cool dude and you should be grateful that
you can buy his hand-crafted work.
Dave is not even a Rebel builder but made the original tips to help his
good friend Curtis Martin, Curt's plane won Outstanding Floatplane award
at OSH it's first year out. When other Rebel builders (myself included)
saw Daves' Hoerner style tips on Curts' Rebel we all bugged him to make us
sets. Bugged him until he relented and said he'd do what he could but he
had "other responsibilities" we'd have be patient.
I've had much pilot time to compare different tip designs on ag-planes and
can say from experience and observation that this style design is a proven
asset. When you are part of a flight of same make/model/power planes (some
with Maderas tips) taking off with the same load many times a day the
Hoerner tipped plane is consistently first airborn and gets to the field
with or ahead of the others.......just a personal observation
...........Angus





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[Ron Shannon]

Both Ben and Angus (and others) make valid points. Dave is 1) a nice guy
with 2) a good design who 3) does quality work, but 4) is hard to reach and
5) is an unpredictable supplier. The first is a good quality, of course, but
positives on the last four issues are more significant to builders -- if
only they could get the same parts somewhere else.

So all these valid arguments when added together still point to the same
thing: it would be better for Rebel builders if Dave would license someone
else to build, sell and ship Fife design tips, for a fee, to his quality
standards, etc. Surely there are quality custom composite shops that could
do the work. I'll write to Dave and see if he's open to the idea.

Happy Fife tip flier,

Ron
N254MR


On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 5:26 AM, Angus McKenzie <angus.mckenzie@sympatico.ca

wrote:

OK, I need to make a comment, having listened to all the repartee'
regarding Dave Fife and his tips!
Experimental aviation is a HOBBY for Dave, myself and Wayne (sorry to drag
you into this Wayne). We are all involved in other endeavours that require
us to be away and work long hours to make the money to enjoy being involved
in the home-built world.
Dave is one of the most upstanding men you will meet and is honourable
beyond reproach!
His tips make the Rebel work better. They will improve the inherent
stability of the plane and are manufactured with a degree of care and
attention to quality that you don't often see in our day-to-day mass
production lives.
Add the fact that Dave is just a cool dude and you should be grateful that
you can buy his hand-crafted work.
Dave is not even a Rebel builder but made the original tips to help his
good friend Curtis Martin, Curt's plane won Outstanding Floatplane award at
OSH it's first year out. When other Rebel builders (myself included) saw
Daves' Hoerner style tips on Curts' Rebel we all bugged him to make us sets.
Bugged him until he relented and said he'd do what he could but he had
"other responsibilities" we'd have be patient.
I've had much pilot time to compare different tip designs on ag-planes and
can say from experience and observation that this style design is a proven
asset. When you are part of a flight of same make/model/power planes (some
with Maderas tips) taking off with the same load many times a day the
Hoerner tipped plane is consistently first airborn and gets to the field
with or ahead of the others.......just a personal observation
...........Angus

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[craig]

Dave took about 8 mos to get my tips to me but didn't ask for any money
until they were ready to ship. When installing the lenses I ruined one of
them and when I told him he promptly sent me two new ones...no charge.
Just another person's experience with him. Craig
----- Original Message -----
From: <bransom@dcsol.com>
To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: [rebel-builders] Fife wing tips

I liked what I heard on Dave Fife tips too, and ordered just to be sure to
not
kick myself and have it turn out that he quits making them by the time I
needed them. It took at least 8 months, maybe 10 for delivery. The
incredibly annoying thing is that most of the time he won't even
respond ...and yes, he cashes your check on first contact. I was grateful
and
a bit surprised when one week after yet another call from me, he actually
responded like there never was a problem, and mailed them to me within
days. He's like the soup nazi -- you want his tips bad enf that you put
up
with his absurd business manner.

ps: Don't disregard the benefit of the slow end of the flight envelope.
I
recall archive info that they make the plane much nicer and controllable
at
the slow end, and reduce stall speed by at least 5mph. Hey, someday I hope
to find out.
-Ben 496R



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[allen.hewko]

I put Dave's wing tips on my Rebel, they are well worth it. They also have a
flat spot to easily mount nav lights. I knew from others experience that it
would be a long wait, so I didn't bug Dave and several months later I had my
tips. I was just grateful to get the tips, as the quality is excellent, and no one
else is interested in supplying an equivalent product. He is doing it in his
spare time, and not getting rich doing it.

Allen H
R151



On 3/16/2011 4:15 PM, snowyrvr@mtaonline.net wrote to rebel-builders:

-> Dave took about 8 mos to get my tips to me but didn't ask for any money
-> until they were ready to ship. When installing the lenses I ruined one of
-> them and when I told him he promptly sent me two new ones...no charge.
-> Just another person's experience with him. Craig
-> ----- Original Message -----
-> From: <bransom@dcsol.com>
-> To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
-> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:08 PM
-> Subject: Re: [rebel-builders] Fife wing tips
->
->
-> >I liked what I heard on Dave Fife tips too, and ordered just to be sure to
-> >not
-> > kick myself and have it turn out that he quits making them by the time
I
-> > needed them. It took at least 8 months, maybe 10 for delivery. The
-> > incredibly annoying thing is that most of the time he won't even
-> > respond ...and yes, he cashes your check on first contact. I was
grateful
-> > and
-> > a bit surprised when one week after yet another call from me, he
actually
-> > responded like there never was a problem, and mailed them to me
within
-> > days. He's like the soup nazi -- you want his tips bad enf that you put
-> > up
-> > with his absurd business manner.
-> >
-> > ps: Don't disregard the benefit of the slow end of the flight envelope.
-> > I
-> > recall archive info that they make the plane much nicer and controllable
-> > at
-> > the slow end, and reduce stall speed by at least 5mph. Hey, someday I
hope
-> > to find out.
-> > -Ben 496R
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> > List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
-> > username "rebel" password "builder"
-> > Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
-> > List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> >
-> >
-> >
->




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[Wayne G. O'Shea]

So you've heard me describe this business before eh Angus... as the "Hobby
from Hell".

Up until about 5 years ago I was the chief cook and bottle washer for our
100+ employee plastic injection moulding business. Man I miss that.... ;O)

The darn thing is I think I got more done on airplanes, in the "spare"
hours, when I was still running the plastics plant. It's either an age thing
or a priority thing.. I think I know the answer!

Hope all is well with the Paramedic routine.

Wayne


----- Original Message -----
From: "Angus McKenzie" <angus.mckenzie@sympatico.ca>
To: "Mike Davis" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 8:26 AM
Subject: RE: [rebel-builders] Fife wing tips

OK, I need to make a comment, having listened to all the repartee'
regarding Dave Fife and his tips!
Experimental aviation is a HOBBY for Dave, myself and Wayne (sorry to drag
you into this Wayne). We are all involved in other endeavours that require
us to be away and work long hours to make the money to enjoy being
involved in the home-built world.
Dave is one of the most upstanding men you will meet and is honourable
beyond reproach!
His tips make the Rebel work better. They will improve the inherent
stability of the plane and are manufactured with a degree of care and
attention to quality that you don't often see in our day-to-day mass
production lives.
Add the fact that Dave is just a cool dude and you should be grateful that
you can buy his hand-crafted work.
Dave is not even a Rebel builder but made the original tips to help his
good friend Curtis Martin, Curt's plane won Outstanding Floatplane award
at OSH it's first year out. When other Rebel builders (myself included)
saw Daves' Hoerner style tips on Curts' Rebel we all bugged him to make us
sets. Bugged him until he relented and said he'd do what he could but he
had "other responsibilities" we'd have be patient.
I've had much pilot time to compare different tip designs on ag-planes and
can say from experience and observation that this style design is a proven
asset. When you are part of a flight of same make/model/power planes (some
with Maderas tips) taking off with the same load many times a day the
Hoerner tipped plane is consistently first airborn and gets to the field
with or ahead of the others.......just a personal observation
...........Angus





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[bransom]

The archives here are full of wonderful things about Dave Fife's wingtips. But
AFAIK, Angus' recent post is the first I've heard that Dave is honest beyond
reproach, a great person, etc. I had that hunch when I was waiting for my
tips, but 6 months without a response is tough to go on when one knows
nothing about the reputation. We're all better off now having heard from
Angus and others here that know Dave more directly.

So, yes, thanks Dave Fife, glad we have you to help us have even better
airplanes!
-Ben



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